Afterward
by iminthedance818
Summary: Just a little spitfire angstlet I threw together. Basically what happens when they get Wally back from the speed force. I may expand this, I may not, but angst sure is fun.


"What have you been doing?" Wally asked, sliding a hand underneath her sweater.

"Waiting for you," Artemis replied.

Wally didn't even try to hide his smile and he slid an arm tighter around her shoulders and kissed her again. In a moment he was on top of her with a knee wedged between her thighs, and in another she had hooked her calf around his. They hadn't so much as unbuttoned anything, but just being together, in their bed -which had unsurprisingly begun to smell more like her than him- felt more intimate than any sex they could be having.

It all felt quite surreal; home on a Wednesday afternoon, rolling around in bed, pressing mouths and fingers against much-neglected skin. The two hadn't done anything like this since their first month together, before they'd even slept together in any way but the literal one. It was January, like it had been then, and as the snow fell on the streets of Central City, it felt every bit like a new beginning should have.

"No really," Wally said. "What have you been doing? Have you been sleeping with tons of people?"

"Yeah," she said sarcastically, playing with his collar.

They both laughed and he rolled her over again, pulling her on top of him. They traded a few more lazy kisses -that were starting to become less lazy and more purposeful, actually- Wally reached up to pull her hair from its tie and watched as her hair tumbled down around them. Longer now.

"God, you're beautiful," he whispered, framing her face with his hands.

"I love you," she whispered back.

"I love you, too, gorgeous," Wally said and pulled her down for another kiss.

He teased her a bit at the end of it, rubbing the tip of his nose against hers, and again, she pulled away laughing and slid to his side, keeping her arms around him.

"I wanna know everything," Wally said. "Tell me every single detail from when I was gone."

"Come on, Wally," Artemis scoffed. "I don't want to talk about when you were gone."

"Hey, its okay. You don't have to worry about anything anymore," he said, running a finger over her cheek. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I just want to forget the last seven months," she said. "I just want to be happy with you now."

"Come on," he prompted, poking at her stomach. "What scandalous things did you get up to?"

"Wally…" Artemis sighed.

"What?" he asked, playfulness fading. "Babe. What… have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Been sleeping with tons of people."

"Wally, come on. Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Let's not talk about this," she said. "Not yet."

"Not yet?" he pulled back. "Are you -what are you saying?"

"Wally, stop," she reached out and gripped his sleeve. "Let's not ruin this."

"Did you sleep with someone?"

"I -maybe, okay? Maybe."

"_Maybe_?" Wally repeated. "What the hell does that mean? Maybe?"

"Wally, come on," she said again. "It's no big deal. Let's-"

"No big deal?" he stood up from the bed, turning his back to her. "Are you ki -who did you sleep with?"

"It doesn't matter," She said. "Wally. It wasn't -it meant nothing. Please-"

"Artemis," he said abruptly and turned to stare right at her. "Who did you sleep with?"

"Wally…"

"Just. Tell me." He said.

Artemis took a long deep breath and dropped her eyes. Before she knew it tears were dripping from her eyes and she was biting her lip, trying to figure out how she was going to say it. There was no way this was happening now. Not after he'd just got back.

"Artemis!" Wally shouted.

"Fine! Fine. God," she covered her face with her hand. There was no way she'd be able to look at him when she said this. "It was… Dick. It was Dick."

"Are you- you…" he took a deep breath. "With Dick? You slept with Dick? My best friend? Are you kidding me?"

"It wasn't like that," she said.

"Like what, Artemis?" He demanded. "What wasn't it like? It wasn't like sleeping with me?"

"I -Of course not," she said. "That's not what I meant. It wasn't- It wasn't because we were in love or-"

"Oh, well that's a relief," He scoffed. "Because I thought you cheated on me for a legitimate reason. But you were just bored. God, huge weight off my shoulders."

"No, Wally," she said. "It wasn't for no reason, I-"

"Oh, this ought to be good," he said. "Please, tell me every detail of how you and _my best fucking friend_ came to sleep together. I can't wait to hear this."

"Wally, please," Artemis pleaded. "You have to understand. It was a few weeks after you-"

"A few _weeks_?" He repeated. "Weeks?"

"Wally-"

"A few weeks. Jesus fucking Christ. That's just… I-I really have to commend you two on your willpower, you know," Wally said. "A few weeks. Wow. Really took your time grieving, didn't you?"

"You don't get it," Artemis said. "We tried _so hard_ to get you back. We were up for _days_ and days and days and nothing was working and it was too much for us to deal with and we both needed some comfort and-"

"And you slept together," he scoffed. "Jesus Christ, Artemis. When you need comfort you get a carton of ice cream and watch a romantic comedy. You don't hook up with your boyfriend's best friend."

"You don't know what it was like, okay?" she said. "We thought you were dead. Dead, Wally! Not undercover, not _faking_ your death. Dead. Gone. Forever."

"And you thought, if I was really dead, _that_'s what I'd want?" he asked. "Or were you just waiting for me to kick it so you could finally be together?"

"Wally," she said sternly. "You _know_ that's not how it is with me and Dick."

"Do I?" Wally asked. "Because before today I thought I knew a lot of things. I thought I knew I was the only person you'd slept with, and, what do you know? Wrong about that too."

"You have to believe me," she said. "I never felt anything for Dick and he never felt anything for me. We never wanted to hurt you."

"Well, A plus fucking job on that one, beautiful," Wally said.

"Wally, I'm so sorry," Artemis said. She rose to her knees at the end of the bed and stretched her arm out for his hand, but he quickly pulled out of her reach. "I didn't want it to happen like this."

"Yeah, well then maybe you shouldn't have slept with my best friend," Wally said, turning to stalk from the room, not looking at her.

"Wally," Artemis slid off the bed and followed him out to the living room. "Please, just listen to me. Just tell me what I need to do to make this better."

"You don't need to do anything, babe," Wally said tonelessly. He was pulling his jacket on and adjusting the collar. "You just need to stop talking to me for a little bit."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna pay an old friend a visit," he said.

"No, Wally, don't -Wally!"

Her protests were cut desperately short, left lingering in the frigid air where Wally had left the door open. He was long gone. He'd barely left a whoosh of air behind as he sped off into the city. Artemis actually fell to her knees, there in front of the coffee table, sobbing out loud. She stayed there for a moment, trying to deal with the crushing in her chest, before realization dawned on her and she scrambled over to the kitchen counter.

Her hands were not her own as she fumbled with her keys and the discarded mail until she finally encountered her phone, knocking it to the ground in her haste. She dropped down again, retrieving it from where it had skidded over by the fridge and settled back against the cabinets. It didn't take her long to find the number she was looking for; she'd called it probably too many times in the last seven months.

She was breathing heavily as the line rang, sniffling and shoving wild hairs out of her face. She hadn't even closed the front door yet. She was positively shaking as a cheery voice came through the receiver.

"Hey, lovebirds," Dick said. "Done already? I mean, I know Wally's the fastest man alive, but it's only been-"

"Dick," Artemis said.

"What's going on Arty?" he was still cheery as ever. "Is everything-"

"Dick," she said again. "He knows."

She could feel the shock and despair and _guilt _through the phone, even though Dick said nothing. Neither of them did, actually, and they both seemed to be waiting for something, but they weren't sure what.

"Is he…?"

"Probably on his way there now," Artemis said.

"Artemis I-"

There was suddenly a loud clatter as, Artemis assumed, the phone was knocked out of Dick's hand, and then distant voices.

"Wally," this one was Dick's, pleading, sobering. "Wally, just listen-"

"_Listen?"_ this was Wally's. The same tone, the same volume, the same anger, betrayal, disappointment he'd used on her just minutes before. "Listen to what? _My girlfriend_ just spilled the whole fucking story."

"We didn't-"

"You didn't what?" Wally shouted. "You didn't want to hurt me? Yeah, I've heard it all before. Are you just so fucking selfish-"

The voices were strained now and there was obviously a struggle and Artemis started a bit at the sound of shattering glass on the other end, but she couldn't make herself move from the kitchen floor.

"You'd think…" smacking of flesh, "after all the shit you've been through," more struggling, but she couldn't tell from who, "you'd have figured out a better coping mechanism than just _fucking_ all your problems away."

"We were distraught!" Dick shouted back, muffled. "We were the only two who possibly knew what the other was going through. It didn't mean anything. It was just-"

"You _knew_ how I felt," Wally said, teeth clenched. "You helped me pick out the fucking _ring_."

"Wally."

"But, Richard Grayson, goddamned prince of Gotham gets whatever the fuck he wants doesn't he?" There was a loud thump as someone, probably Dick, fell to the floor. "We're done, you understand me? Done. You don't fucking come near me or Artemis ever again. Or I will fucking kill you."

A few heavy footfalls and I slammed door later and things were silent again. Artemis was utterly motionless on her end. She listened hard for signs of life on the other end and then there was rattling and scraping as Dick picked the phone back up. They could hear each other breathing, and for now that was fine. It wasn't like they could ever find the right words to say to each other anyway.

Artemis broke first, "Dick I- I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry. I didn't want him to…"

"You should probably call Jay and Barry," Dick said quietly. "They'll find him."

"I-" the phone went dead before she could say anything; not even a dial tone to ease her into it.

A moment passed where she just kept the phone pressed to her ear, listening to nothing, sure that if she kept waiting things would set themselves right again. Eventually she dropped the phone, letting it bounce and slide out of her reach once again. True numbness started to descend on her, the futility of the situation taking hold. She'd gotten herself out of some sticky situations before; being trapped on a desert island, having her cover blown, bringing her boyfriend back from a different goddamned _plane of existence_, but none of this was anything she could solve with science or fists and how exactly did one mend matters of the heart?

She had never actually been good at that -recent events withstanding- and she usually just preferred to bury it and avoid any and all opportunities of dealing with it. She'd done it with her father, her sister, her mother's past, her own immoral impulses, but she could never figure out why this tactic wouldn't work with Wally. She'd tried to bury her feelings for him when they first met, that was a bust, she tried to bury her longing when she was undercover, that was a bust, she tried to bury her despair when he disappeared, that was the biggest bust of all. And now she was sat there, on the kitchen floor, winter wind chilling her to the bone with no idea where to go or what to do. How could she have fucked up the only good thing to ever happen to her?

* * *

Sooooo, sorry about the dysfunction of that last post, I'm not sure what happened? Perhaps because I copy/pasted it from my tumblr? Anyway enjoy.


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